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(Satyam Fashion Institute, 2015, Mass Media).

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(Satyam Fashion Institute, 2015, Mass Media).

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There are many definitions of the term ‘mass’ as followed;

“A large body of matter with no definite shape”

“The majority of”

“A large quantity or amount of something”.

However, the most relevant to the topic of mass media is defined as “a large number of people or objects/and (or) a large amount of material (Oxford Dictionary of English, 1998). Mass in general terms refers to the quantity equal to ‘many’. Although the exact number of ‘large number’ is yet to be clarified and is generally ambiguous.

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The working definition of media according to Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) is “the main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the Internet) regarded collectively: their demands were publicised by the media”. The media comes in numerous forms, all of which will be described.

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Mass media is, therefore, the source of communication that transmits information to a large number of people (Abercrombie et al. 2006). Mass media is “all communication forms which are capable of reaching a large audience, including radio, television, the worldwide web and much more” (Giddens and Sutton, 2017, p.147). Mass media refers to technology, organisations, and elements involved with communicating to mass audiences by not using any face-to-face contact (Browne, K, 2011).

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(Magafas, 2015) Mass Media in a Democratic Society: Keeping a Promise).

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(Magafas, 2015) Mass Media in a Democratic Society: Keeping a Promise).

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Media ownership has become focused on a small sample of giant government corporations. However, it is not certain that the media content is specifically owned, or messages received and sent through the media are controlled (Painter and Zarifi 2013). According to Painter and Zarifi (2013), around 90% of the largest companies are American-owned worldwide corporations which are operated across several different countries. Due to the increasing number of international corporations, Western consumerism seems to be overpowering the world more and more (Painter and Zarifi 2013).

Many combined companies that own a range of media forms become ‘conglomerates’ or are also known as ‘supercompanies’. These conglomerates are companies that own multiple cross-media such as TV channels, magazines and radio stations (Giddens and Sutton, 1989).

More specifically there are six main well-known companies that own the mass media. These are ‘Comcast’, ‘Walt Disney’, ‘21st Century Fox’, ‘Time Warner’, ‘CBS’ and ‘Viacom’. All of these billion-dollar companies share the ownership of media over the world such as film production, online streaming, broadcast television, news, sports, and music (Now This World, 2016).

Media ownership is different globally and varies depending on the government and economic state. For example, according to Djankov et al. (2003, p.343) “government ownership of the media is greater in countries that are poorer, have greater overall state ownership in the economy, lower levels of school enrolment’s, and more autocratic regimes”.
For example, North Korea has been deemed to have the tightest control on radio, TV, internet, and mobile phones in the world. Kim-Jong-il is seen as the ‘dear leader’ of North Korea, alongside the governance of Korean Workers’ Party who control the restrictions of global media to North Korea (BBC News, 2011).

As we know, the production of media is very influential in modern society’s beliefs and attitudes. If the situation of those who own the media also have control over its content, they will use this to their advantage by promoting their own beliefs and urging society to be on ‘their side’ (Painter and Zarifi, 2013). A popular example from a Marxist perspective is Rupert Murdoch of News International. Murdoch in the past has used his power and ownership of the media to his advantage by controlling the political agenda of ‘The Sun’ newspaper to attract the working-class influence. Marxists believe this demonstrates a control of the working-class ideologies by using the media to target these audiences (Painter and Zarifi, 2013).

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For many years of human history, communication of ideas, knowledge and information could only be transmitted by means of oral speech and face-to-face interactions (Giddens and Sutton, 2017).  This still remains an aspect of communication. One-to-one communication is much more interpersonal and can come in verbal and non-verbal forms. It entails communicating with that individual by either face-to-face, over the phone, and sending/receiving messages. As well as non-verbally such as communicating through body language, eye contact, hand gestures and spacing between you and the individual (Abercrombie, et al. 2006).

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One-to-many communication is generally clarified as ‘one’ person communicating to ‘many’ or a mass audience at the same time. For example, an author of a book will have a large number of people reading their book simultaneously. A TV director or a film director will have a mass of people watching the same programme/film at the same time (Livesey, 2011). One-to-many communication is operated through a very impersonal approach, as the communication is only one-way. For instance, the audience cannot give back any feedback in return to the media. An example being, you can voice your opinions to the television, but there will be no response (Livesey, 2011). There is also social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat that uses one-to-many communication by advertising the same thing to masses of people at the same time.

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Abercrombie, N., Hill, S., and Turner, S, B., (2006) Dictionary of Sociology. Fifth edition. London: Penguin Books Ltd.

BBC News (2011) North Korea Tightly Controlled Media. [s.l.] BBC News. [online]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-16255126 [Accessed 28 March 2018].

Browne, K (2011) An Introduction to Sociology. 4th edition. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., and Erdogan, B (2018) Different Types of Communication. [s.l.] : Flat World Knowledge. [online]. Available from: https://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/5?e=carpenter-ch12_s03 [Accessed 29 March 2018].

Djankov, S., McLiesh, C., Nenova, T.,  and Shleifer, A (2003) The Journal of Law and Economics. Who Owns the Media? 46 (2) pp. 341-382.

Giddens, A and Sutton, W, P. (1989) Sociology. 8th edition. Malden: Polity Press.

Giddens, A and Sutton, W, P. (2017) Essential Concepts in Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Livesey, C (2011) Defining Mass Media. [s.l.] : Sociology Central. [online]. Available from: http://www.sociology.org.uk/notes/media_defined.pdf [Accessed 28 March 2018].

Now This World (2016) Who owns the Media? [online video]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awRRPPE3V5Q [Accessed 28 March 2018].

Painter, E. and Zarifi, E (2013) Key Concepts In Sociology. London. Harper Collins Publishers.

Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) 3rd ed. London: Oxford University Press.

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There are different types of communication that society and the media use every day. Verbal communication is one, this includes communicating by the use of mouth. Such as in conversation face-to-face, or over the telephone. Different variations of paralanguage can be key to the receiver acknowledging the message from the sender; such as their volume of speech, tone and pace of voice (Carpenter et al. 2018).
Non-verbal communication consists of cues such as facial expressions, eye contact, body stance, space and body language. All of which are very important, according to Carpenter et al. (2018) “only 7% of a receiver’s comprehension of a message is based on the sender’s actual words; 38% is based on paralanguage (the tone, pace, and volume of speech), and 55% is based on nonverbal cues (body language).
Lastly is written communication, written communication is ‘print’ based. For instance, in forms of emails, letters, books, and on television screens. In contrast to verbal and non-verbal communication, written communication can be composed over a long period of time. As explained with ‘one-to-many’ and ‘one-to-one’ communication, the writer can send the message at any particular time to any amount of people and the reader can read It at any time unlike verbal communication where the conversation is in present time (Carpenter et al. 2018).

Mass media communication has been distinguished to be different from other types of communication due to four main characteristics. Firstly, the distance of communication. The media is impersonal, lacks immediacy and is only one-way. Secondly, technology is a characteristic because the media needs a device in order to send the message such as a television receiver or radio etc.
Thirdly, the scale of the audience. In order for the mass media to communicate effectively, the audience must be simultaneously observing the message.
And lastly, the commodity. Mass media can only be effective if society buys products for media to use and spread globally. For example, in order to watch the television, you must be able to afford the television, the television license and the subscription to receive the channels (Livesey, 2011).

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Cameron, J., Preace, M., Flowers, T., Duncan, W,. Wright, M,. Hart, M,. and Renton, N,. (2008) AQA Sociology. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.

Chapman, S (2017) Revise AQA AS Sociology. London: Pearson Education Limited.

Curran, J, P and Gurevitch, M. (2005) Mass Media and Society. 4th edition. London: Arnold.